A number of years ago a friend of mine, John Taffin, told me that he had the best job in the world because he gets to test custom revolvers from all of the top Pistolsmiths. I told John that I thought I had the best job because I get to make dreams come true. He said we are both very fortunate to do what we enjoy for a living.
Rewarding
A good friend and customer, Mark Conners, from Washington state ordered an Ultimate Accuracy Big Bore revolver. He explained to me he plans on using this revolver to hunt mule deer, and an occasional bear hunt as well. He also plans to take the revolver to the Elmer Keith Long Range Shoot along with the Handgun Hunters Competition as well. It is always very rewarding to build a custom accurate revolver that my customer will take advantage of its accuracy.
The gun is a custom 454 Casull. This client has a number of molds and is very knowledgeable about reloading. Pictured are some groups using his supplied hand loads. The base gun started life as a Ruger Black Hawk 357 Bisley. First, I disassembled, inspected, and measured to make sure that the frame was in specs. An out of spec. gun will never be accurate.
Cylinder work
Next I opened the cylinder window to accept the oversized cylinder. I bored the base pin hole over sized to accept the Belt Mountain oversized bace pin. Then I welded in the bolt block which is important for a tight lock up. Next, I machined the 5 shot cylinder from 17-4 PH stainless. I have been asked often why a 5 shot and not a 6 shot. On 6 shot cylinders the bolt lock notch is in the middle of the chamber while a 5 shot lock notch is between the chambers, which adds a lot of strength.
I machined the cylinders to 1.800” diameter Factory cylinders are .090 smaller and I machine the chambers and ratchet after hardening which makes a much nicer finish. All cylinders are line bored to the particular frame.
Why Line Bore? From the beginning of Single Action revolvers, Gunsmiths have bored out the cylinder to accept larger cartridges and used a larger barrel and they were good to go. If you remember back when it was a common practice to run a range rod down the barrel into the cylinder locked in battery to see if the cylinder is in perfect alignment with the bore.
Checking alignment
I can remember the salesman behind the counter ranging a revolver and saying, “It just ticks as it enters the cylinder, this is a good one.” Some would not let the range rod enter the cylinder at all. I will use the 45 Colt as an example. The throat should measure .4525 to .453 to be correct, so the barrel bore is roughly.441 but the groove is .452 typically. The range rod is .440 to clear the rifling. That is .011 smaller than the throat. That is a fair amount of misalignment.
For over 35 years I have been line boring revolvers. Line boring is accomplished by inserting a proper sized bushing into the frame and reaming the charge hole into alignment with the center of the bore. Cylinders are bored from the throat to the chamber, then the cylinder is removed and using a chamber reamer with a pilot to follow the line bore reamed hole.
A common practice is taking a 357 cylinder and line boring to 38/40, 40 SW, 10 mm MAG, 41 Spec, 41 Mag, 44 Spec,44/40, 44 Mag, 45 Colt, or 45 ACP. When you install the correct barrel, you now have a more accurate revolver than a factory gun. For many years Colt has struggled with a correct throat size, many are way oversized.
I have taken many linebored 357 cylinders to the original caliber with correct throat dia. Many custom builds have been built starting with a 357 and turning out a true custom revolver.
Barrels
I normally use Douglas Precision Match barrel blanks. I have had good success with their accuracy as well as very little leading.
All the builds I do are Taylor throated. Some refer to this as Free bore. The rifling is removed for 1 1/2 times the length of the bullet. This will allow the bullet to get into alignment with the center line of the bore.
Some people feel that cutting an over sized forcing cone will help accuracy, but I believe it will wreck accuracy in a hurry.
This gun has a 6” barrel and .840 OD.
Another aspect of forcing cone angles are from 5 degree to 18 degree. 11 degree seems to work the best for most bullet designs. Many times I find that someone has run a 11 degree forcing cone cutter drive rod down the barrel and connect a 11-degree cutter and rotate from the muzzle to recut the forcing cone. The cutters are very sharp and remove metal quickly.
The first problem with this method is if the forcing cone isn’t already 11 degree, then you are cutting a compound angle.
The rest of the specs on this custom revolver include an 11 degree forcing cone and taylor throated barrel which has .0005 end float and .002 barrel cylinder gap.
Final details
Turning out a custom wheelgun is not only my passion but my profession. I hope my customer finds much success in the field with his new revolver.
To contact Larry Crow:
CompetitiveEdgeGunworks.net
1-660-322-0304